All or Nothing? – The Case of Aviyah (Abijah)

All or Nothing? – The Case of Aviyah (Abijah)

The book of Judges describes how Israel strayed from obedience to God (Judges 2:11 – 23). Before the monarchy was established in Israel we find that the Jewish people swayed back and forth from serving idols to serving God. With the emergence of Samuel the people turned back to God (1Samuel 7:2). This period of loyalty to God lasted throughout the times of Samuel, the reign of Saul and David as well as Solomon. But under Rechav’am (Rehoboam) the son of Solomon the people of Judah went back to do worse than all of the evils that were done before then (1Kings 14:22). This trend continued into the reign of Aviyam (or Aviyah – Abijah) as the prophet records (1Kings 15:3). This was the most sinful generation of Jews up until that time.

Now let us turn to the book of Chronicles. We find Aviyah facing off in battle against the Israelite army of the Northern kingdom. Although outnumbered Aviyah is confident that his Judean army will prevail. The Scriptures tell us how Aviyah stood on a mountain and lectured to the Israelite army about his own loyalty to God and the loyalty of his kingdom. Aviyah speaks of the service in the Temple that is being kept up by the people of Judah and he speaks of the fact that his people have not abandoned the watch of the Lord (2Chronicles 13:4 – 12).

Aviyah and the Judeans were indeed victorious over their Israelite opponents because they relied on the God of their fathers (2Chronicles 13:18).

Let us step back a minute. Didn’t the prophet teach us that this was a sinful generation? Where do we see Aviyah’s humility before God? How can we reconcile the dismal portrait of Aviyah as presented by the prophetic author of the book of Kings with his own assessment of himself as recorded in the book of Chronicles?

This is not the only such contradiction in the Scriptures. The righteous King David says about himself: “For my sins have gone over my head as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me” (Psalm 38:5). Yet the same David declares: “All of His judgments are before me and I have not turned away from His statutes” (Psalm 18:23). So was David a person drowning in sin or was he someone who was loyal to God?

We find the same contradiction concerning the nation of Israel as a whole in their exiled state. In Psalm 44 Israel declares to God:  “All this is come upon us but we have not forgotten You nor have we been false to Your covenant” (Psalm 44:18). And the same Israel declares: “We have sinned with our fathers we have done wrong and acted wickedly” (Psalm 106:6).

Through the prophet Jeremiah we learn how God was never pleased with the deeds of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 32:31). Yet God refers to the original state of the city as the “faithful city” (Isaiah 1:21). So which is it?

Hezekiah pleads to God to spare him on account of his own righteousness (2Kings 20:3). But didn’t the prophets teach us that no one is completely righteous (Job 15:16)?

The answer is that there are different levels of God’s judgment. On the one hand no one is justified before God’s absolute justice (Psalm 143:2; Job 9:30,31). On the other hand God is merciful and He factors our humanity into His judgment (Psalm 78:39; 103:14). We need to recognize that even if we were to obey God perfectly He would still owe us nothing because we have given Him only that which he already possesses (Job 35:7). On the other hand we must appreciate the blessing of obedience that God granted us in whichever limited sense we were blessed. God rewards even imperfect obedience; not because He owes anyone anything, but because in His mercy He counts our obedience for us as righteousness.

Both are true. We are sinful and we are loyal to God. The limited loyalty that we were granted directs us to yearn and to strive for greater closeness to God and deeper obedience. And our loyalty to God also directs us to stand tall in our obedience as the righteous Yehoshafat (Jehoshaphat) did before us (2Chronicles 17:6) and thank God for that blessing in our present state.

Freedom

Freedom

“There is no free man but one who busies himself with the study of Torah” (Avot 6:2)

Freedom means not being tied down by the boundaries and limitations that tend to limit us. There are different types of freedom. An acrobat is someone who has developed and cultivated a certain freedom of his or her physical body. A skilled acrobat is not limited by the forces that limit the rest of us. A musician is another person who cultivated freedom. An accomplished musician can express themselves with an instrument in ways that the rest of us cannot. The same applies to a race-car driver, a stunt pilot, and to so many other skills that people develop.

Each of these people develops a specific freedom. And in order to develop any freedom one needs to limit themselves. The skilled acrobat, musician, and mathematician all need to spend many long hours, days weeks, months and years cultivating and developing the particular skill in order to be able to obtain that specific freedom that they seek.

But is there any one freedom that we can point to and say that this is the freedom? Can we say about any specific type of freedom that this particular breaking of boundaries is the true freedom?

The question we must first address is who are we? The Scriptures teach that we were all created in the image of God. This means that deep inside of all of us is the yearning to be kind as God is kind, the desire for truth as God is true and the desire for fairness, justice and mercy. That is who we are.

The true freedom is when our sensitivity to truth, our humility and our gratitude are mature, developed and unencumbered by the limitations that would stand in our way. True freedom is when our practice of kindness soars to heights that we may otherwise not have reached. We can only say that our inner selves have obtained freedom when our consideration for others breaks boundaries and exceeds limits.

Let me illustrate with a small but true story. This took place in an elementary school. A group of eighth grade girls were going to get up on stage to sing for the rest of the school as part of the annual color war contest. The team’s colors were maroon and black so each of the girls was dressed in a black outfit trimmed with a large maroon bow. One of the girls lost her bow. She only realized that her bow was gone as she was about to go up on stage. She panicked. How embarrassing! Please get me a bow! But there were no extra bows around. Another girl immediately took off her own bow and tied it around her friend and that is how the group went on stage.

Do you think that the girl who lost her bow was not a considerate girl? I am sure that she is a nice and fine girl but her quality of consideration was hampered and limited by the wall of embarrassment. The girl who so readily and unhesitatingly gave away her own bow was not limited by the same wall of embarrassment that tied down her friend. Her consideration of others was more free and unlimited than that of her friend.

This is a miniature story but one that sheds light on so much more. It could be consideration versus embarrassment; it could be gratitude versus pride; it could be kindness versus greed and it could be holiness versus self-centeredness. In each of these situations we need to break barriers and find freedom and the range is endless.  

How do we develop this true freedom? What are the exercises that develop our sensitivity to kindness and break the petty walls that tie us down?

This is the Torah. Studying the words of the Torah and following the precepts of the Torah with a heart that is humbled before the One who so lovingly granted us the Torah is the way we develop true freedom.  The way we cultivate the freedom of the image of God in which we were all created is by imbibing the holiness, the beauty and the truth of the Law of the Creator of heaven and earth.

There is no free man but one who busies himself with the study of Torah   

 

Acts and Faith

Acts and Faith

In the third and fourth chapters of the Book of Romans Paul sets down one of the cornerstones of Christian theology. Paul argues that no man can be justified by works as described in the Law of Moses because such justification would be a justification of debt and not of grace. Only through faith, argues Paul, is the justification a justification of grace.

Paul is saying that if God rewards good works it would be as if God is paying off a debt to the doer of these works. But when God rewards faith then God’s mercy and grace are revealed.

In order to support this theology Paul points to Genesis 15:6 where God reckoned Abraham’s faith for righteousness. The conclusion Paul arrives at is that only faith and not works can count for righteousness.

This Christian doctrine is the very antithesis of the Jewish Scriptures.

First of all, if God were to reward works it would NOT be an issue of paying a debt. God owes nothing to any of His creations. Whatever works are done by God’s creations give nothing to God that He did not already possess. If God chooses to reward works it is an expression of grace and mercy because our works belong to God before we gave them to Him. Just as God counted Abraham’s faith as righteousness so did He count Phineas’ works for righteousness (Psalm 106:31) and so does He count our works as righteousness (Deuteronomy 6:25). Whatever it is that God counts as righteousness it is never a debt that He owes. It is always an expression of His grace and mercy.

But; protests the Christian, can works not be a product of hypocritical self-righteousness and an expression of self-absorption?

The answer is that of-course works can be empty and hypocritical but these are not the works that the Law of Moses talks of. The works described by the Law of Moses are works of obedience, works of hearkening to God’s voice, works that emerge from a heart that is completely submitted to God. It is only to the degree that the person is submitted to God in heart and in deed that we can consider the works as “hearkening to God’s voice”.

But as much as Christians are confused about works it seems to me that there is a deeper confusion about faith. I am not even referring to the fact that the faith of the Christian in Jesus has nothing to do with the faith of Abraham in the One Creator of heaven and earth. I am talking about the delusion that the path of faith is somehow free of self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

Christians seem to believe that their faith can justify them. But what is faith in God? Faith in God means recognizing that God is the only true power. If someone feels more secure because he or she has a steady job then their heart is leaning on a power other than God. If a person feels any better because the doctor reported that they are in good health then again the heart is not complete with God. If someone doesn’t feel as safe and secure in a lonely forest as they do in a civilized city then again the heart is relying on the power of men and not so much on the power of God.

Full faith in God means freedom from self-centeredness. If you feel just as happy when your friend acquires some goal in worldly or in spiritual matters as you do when you yourself reach that goal then you can say that you are free from self-centeredness.

Faith in God means freedom from pride. If you feel the same way when someone insults you as when someone compliments you then you can say that you are free of pride.

Does this mean that faith in God is impossible? No! Not at all. But it won’t happen without God’s help. You need to pray to God so that he can fill your heart with true faith in Him. You need to recognize that just as you cannot produce works that are pleasing to Him without complete and utter humility before God so will you not produce faith without complete humility before God.

You need to follow the path that God set for us so that we can walk in His faith. This path is the path of works. By doing justice and loving kindness we can learn to walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8). Not that we see these (the practice of justice and kindness) as a means to “earn” a walk with God. Because God will never owe us anything. Instead we see the practice of justice and kindness as opportunities to imbibe in God’s goodness and to humble ourselves before Him.

No one can say that their heart is entirely pure (Proverbs 20:9). All we can do is yearn and look forward to the day when God will intervene and cleanse us Himself (Deuteronomy 30:6). To yearn means to walk the path that God mapped out for us with as much obedience as God grants us each and every day.

But what happens until then? What happens before our hearts and deeds are completely subject to God? The Jewish Scriptures make it clear that God doesn’t expect perfection from His creations (Psalm 103:14). The Scriptures are replete with examples of God looking favorably upon the hearts and deeds of men even though we know that these men and women were not perfect in heart or in deed simply because they were human.

To think that we have “arrived” is arrogance. To believe that we are nowhere is spurning God’s goodness. We need to recognize our blessings at the same time that we need to recognize our utter dependence on God.

 

Covenant – Minimal Requirement

The Jewish people stand in a covenantal relationship with God. Not only as individuals, but also and primarily as a national entity. The nation that consists of individual Jews from all geographical locations and from all generations stands together as one party of a covenant in which the other partner is the Creator of heaven and earth. Members of this covenant nation recognize that this relationship with God requires a certain commitment. Our commitment to the covenant requires that we obey those precepts that our nation accepted as our part of the deal between God and ourselves. Our commitment to the covenant also requires that we cultivate appreciation of the covenant in our own hearts and in the hearts of our fellow members of this covenant.

The concept of a covenant implies that there are or that there will be factors that threaten the relationship between the two parties. A covenant is the solemn promise that both parties in a relationship pledge towards each other that they will maintain their loyalty to the relationship despite the various factors that might otherwise work to weaken or to break the relationship. God promises the Jewish people that no matter how much they sin and stray from His truth, He will maintain His side of the covenantal relationship (Jeremiah 31:36). The people of Israel face many forces that attempt to break their standing as a covenant nation before God. The human proclivity to self-centered pleasure seeking and desire for power threatens to create a barrier between themselves and their Divine partner. Those who wish to maintain their covenantal relationship with God encourage themselves and their fellow Jews to keep sight of this holy relationship and overcome the temptation to get lost in the sea of self-centered materialism.

The most direct assault on Israel’s relationship with God is the sin of idolatry. The Jewish Bible compares idolatry to spiritual adultery. The prophets saw Israel’s relationship with God as a marriage. There is an ideal marriage in which both partners think of nothing but of their love to each other and of their responsibilities towards each other. A marriage in which one of the partners moves into the realm of self-centeredness and forgets their responsibility towards his or her partner is certainly less than ideal, but the marriage has not been violated. It is when one of the partners enters into a marriage-like relationship with someone other than their spouse that the marriage has been directly violated. When a Jew forgets his or her covenantal responsibilities, the relationship between themselves and God has moved away from the ideal, but it has not been directly violated. It is when the Jew enters into a relationship with an entity other than God that the covenant with God has been broken.

In light of their standing as a covenant nation before God, the Jewish people as a community have resisted the Church’s missionary campaign that would have them direct their hearts towards Jesus. The Jewish community views devotion to Jesus as idolatrous; the most direct violation of their covenant relationship with God, and Israel views its own resistance to the Church message as an expression of loyalty to the covenant it shares with God. In the eyes of the Jewish community, being a Jew means at the bare minimum, not entering into a devotional relationship with Jesus (or with any other idol).

The Pharisees

The Pharisees

 

You would expect that the authors of the Christian Scriptures would attempt to teach the doctrines of Christianity. Indeed, the theology of Christianity can be found by reading the letters of Paul. But the writers of the Christian Scriptures did not stop at presenting their own theology; they also found it necessary to give their readers a perspective of Jewish theology. It seems that believing certain things about Jews and Judaism is part and parcel of Christianity.

 

The word “Pharisee” appears 100 times in the Christian Scriptures. Who were the Pharisees? The Pharisees were the leaders of those Jews who believed in the national testimony of the Jewish people. The Pharisees were the leaders of the Jewish people and their philosophy and teachings is known today as Orthodox Judaism.

 

A popular thesaurus equates the word “Pharisee” with: “hypocrite”, “fraud”, “deceiver” and “pretender”. A typical Christian study Bible describes the Pharisees as: “self-righteous”, “avaricious”, “fond of distinguished titles”, “oppressive” and “cruel”. This view of the Pharisees is rooted in the writings of the Christian Scriptures. Every other historical document that we have that describes the Pharisees does not support this negative judgment of the Pharisees.

 

The writings of the Pharisees themselves preach against all of these vices. Not only do they preach against these vices but they also provide stories from real life that provide illumination in humility, kindness, honesty and selflessness.

 

If we would be alive in the times of the writing of the Christian Scriptures we can perhaps have an argument as to which path it is that leads to humility – is it the path proposed by the writers of the Christian Scriptures or is it the path mapped out by the Pharisees. But today there is no room for such an argument. We have 2000 years of historical data in front of us. Were there any hypocritical Jews in the past 2000 years? Of-course! Did the Jews sometimes have leaders who were frauds and deceivers? Yes, they did. I am not trying to deny that. What I am saying however is that the community who walked the path mapped out by the Pharisees fared so much better than the community who followed the path mapped out by the authors of the Christian Scriptures. The authors of the Christian Scriptures did not provide their community with the spiritual leadership that it needed while the Pharisees did.

 

When presented with the historical record of the community who respected the Christian Scriptures missionaries often respond with the slogan: “they were not real Christians”. This assertion rings very hollow in my ears. So many students of history have concluded that to disassociate the Christian Scriptures from the Inquisition and the holocaust is like trying to disassociate smoking from lung-cancer. But it is not necessary for me to expose the empty rhetoric of the missionary here and now. All I need to say to the Christian is that if you want me to judge the authors of the Christian Scriptures on the basis of their moral teachings and on nothing else then I ask you to be consistent. Don’t judge the Pharisees by what their theological enemies have said about them. Judge them by their moral teachings or don’t judge them at all.

Trust and Repentance

Trust and Repentance

 

Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Gabirol describes the process of repentance as escaping and fleeing from God to God. When we realize the weight of God’s judgment and the evil of sin we recognize that we need to escape. But there is only one place to run and that is to take shelter in God Himself. And God promises to protect and preserve those who trust in Him and only in Him (Nahum 1:7; Psalm 18:31).

 

Trusting in God means trusting in no one and in nothing else. Not in our works, not in our merits, not in our strength or wealth, not in the blood of any sacrifice and certainly not in the works of someone who claimed to be sinless. God told Moses that he will have compassion on whom He will have compassion (Exodus 33:19). If someone looks to God and to God alone for compassion then that is where God’s compassion will be found. If someone looks elsewhere for compassion – such as to the claims of a “perfect sacrifice” or to the works of a person who walked God’s earth and breathed God’s air like you or me – then God will tell you to go to that person to find your compassion. And anyone who breathed God’s air is just as needy for God’s compassion as you are (Isaiah 2:22).

 

In this spirit and as part of Eternal Israel’s worship we address God with the following words in the Yom Kippur liturgy:

 

“We are Your nation and You are our God.

We are Your children and You are our Father.

We are Your servants and You are our Master.

We are Your congregation and You are our portion.

We are Your inheritance and You are our lot.

We are Your sheep and You are our Shepherd.

We are Your vineyard and You are our Keeper.

We are Your handiwork and You are our Creator.

We are Your spouse and You are our Beloved.

We are Your treasure and You are our God.

We are Your nation and You are our King.

We are Your distinguished ones and You are our Distinction.

We are brazen-faced and You are merciful and gracious.

We are stiff-necked and You are slow to anger.

We are filled with iniquity and You are filled with compassion.

We – our days are like a fleeting shadow and Your years will never end.”

Lessons from Leviticus 16

Lessons from Leviticus 16

 

The 16^th chapter in the book of Leviticus describes the yearly service that would take place in the Tabernacle (and subsequently in the Jerusalem Temple) on the Day of Atonement. The passage describes in great detail precisely what it is that the high priest must do on that holy day. This includes (but is not limited to) bringing several animal offerings, reciting a verbal confession over some these offerings, bringing incense into the holy of holies, sprinkling the blood of some of the offerings in the holy of holies and sending out a goat into the wilderness.

 

With the absence of the Temple we cannot fulfill the directives of this chapter on a practical level at this time. Nevertheless, this chapter still occupies a central position in the minds and the hearts of those who revere the Jewish Scriptures. Although we cannot practically fulfill these laws we can still learn and be inspired from these laws.

 

Interestingly; both the Jewish and the Christian communities focus on this passage. But these two communities have each taken different lessons, even opposite lessons out of the verses in this chapter.

 

The Christian community (and I refer here to those denominations of Christianity who have targeted my community for proselytization) focuses on the blood atonement described in this chapter. Christian theology asserts that there can be no atonement for sin without a blood sacrifice so the lesson they take from this chapter is that we can’t manage without some form of substitutionary atonement. Being that we cannot offer the bulls, the rams and the goats described in Leviticus 16 these Christians contend that these have all been replaced by Jesus. By putting their faith in Jesus Christians believes that they have the cleansing of the Day of Atonement every day of the year.

 

The Jewish community cannot accept the Christian interpretation of this chapter in Leviticus; this for many reasons. One simple reason that jumps out at us as we examine the issue is the simple fact that God only fixed one Day of Atonement per year. There are more than 50 Sabbaths in a year. It is clear to the Jew that the lesson of Sabbath is one that we should be focusing on more frequently than the lessons of the Day of Atonement. The Christian’s inordinate obsession with sin and atonement is not reflected in the life-cycle set forth in the Law of Moses. According to the Law of Moses we should more often focus on the idea that everything that exists is a creation of God (Exodus 20:11) than we should be focusing on our need for atonement.

 

Furthermore; the Christian interpretation of the passage in Leviticus ignores all of the aspects of this holy day that were not substitutionary atonement. The verbal confession, the incense, the lots, the changing of the high priest’s clothes and the ritual washing are all ignored or marginalized by the Christian reading of this chapter.

 

The Jewish community does not see this passage in Leviticus as an exaltation of one method of atonement over another. To the Jew this chapter speaks of God’s gift of obedience. God commanded us to do these actions not because he needed them done but because He grants us the opportunity to obey His command. Each and every detail of these laws is treasured and cherished by the Jewish people. We study the intricate laws described in this chapter and we teach them to our children. We yearn for the restoration of the Temple so that we can again enjoy the gift of obeying each one of God’s instructions and we beseech God that He restore His sanctuary to our midst.

 

On the Day of Atonement we attempt to fulfill those of God’s commandments that are possible for us to fulfill in our exiled state and we thank God for granting us this limited measure of that gift. We take the opportunity to focus on the absence of the Temple and reinforce the recognition that it is our national and personal sins that are prolonging our exile. We pray for God’s cleansing and for Him to draw us close to Him.

 

The lesson of Leviticus 16 (as well as the lesson of every other chapter in the Bible) is that obedience and submission towards God brings blessing and life. The opportunity to obey God is not something that is intrinsically ours but rather it is a gift that God sometimes withholds from us. Our submission towards God brings us to yearn for the restoration of the gift. And our obedience to God’s law does not allow us to accept a theology which asserts that chapter 16 of the book of Leviticus has been discarded, done away with and replaced by something different.

 

The prophets taught us clearly that the underlying theme of the Law is NOT sacrifice but obedience (1samuel 15:22; Jeremiah 7:22,23). Obedience is not a matter of obtaining God’s blessing by the work of our hands but rather obedience is submission of heart and body to God with the full recognition that every action of ours is but a gift from God.